Monthly Archives: February 2016

The in basket: Byron McKenzie of Allyn and Martha Washington
have questions about the continuing road work in Belfair.

Byron writes, “North Mason residents have lived with the Highway
3 widening project in Belfair for over four years. The utility work
has been completed and now the road construction has been in
work since early last year.

“However, in the last two months nothing is being done. Is the
contractor on strike? Have they run out of funds? Are they on
schedule and budget? Is the contractor having problems or is he
inexperienced? What is the status of this project? This heavily
traveled corridor is a real mess.”

Asks Martha, “Is the speed limit reduction temporary? Back
in December, signs for a 25 mph speed limit through the Belfair
construction zone started popping up. So far they mostly seem
to be ignored. I was assuming it was a safety issue due to the
jersey barriers on the shoulder in some places and the speed limit
would go back up to 35 mph once the widening project is done.
Can your contacts confirm this?”

The out basket: Claudia Bingham-Baker, spokeswoman for the state
highway department, replies, “Construction on this WSDOT project
began in mid-July, 2015. Work previous to that was done by the
Belfair water utility in preparation for our project.

“The contractor on our project was initially restricted to
working between Belfair Elementary and a retention pond just north
of Romance Hill Road. We are now allowing the contractor to
work north of there to build a third retention pond. Over the next
month, we expect the contractor to complete work on nine new
retaining walls and continue work on the three ponds.

“Wet weather has slowed the work on the retention ponds. To
facilitate the work, we are using (large metal) tanks to help
manage the high ground water levels at the site before construction
begins on drainage installation and highway widening.”

I had driven through Belfair and noticed that all the striping
seemed normal, even over the obvious pavement patches.

“Recently we did refresh the roadway striping through the area,”
Claudia explained, “not as final striping but interim striping to
help motorists navigate better through the area. The
construction signs and jersey barrier are needed for the retaining
wall work.

That site says, “WSDOT has lowered the current 35 mph speed
limit to 25 miles because of construction. The speed limit has been
temporarily reduced between mileposts 25.3 and 26.6, which is the
area near Belfair Elementary School and Northeast Clifton Lane. The
reduced speed limit will continue until spring 2016.

WSDOT contractor, Ceccanti, has crews building stormwater
ponds, walls, and a new stream crossing at Romance Hill Road.

This widening project will extend the center turn
lane and provide paved shoulders and sidewalks on both sides of SR
3. The improvements are intended to be built in two
separate stages.

Stage 1 of the project will begin at milepost 25.36 (just south
of Belfair Elementary School and Theler Center) to milepost 27.08
(Ridge Point Blvd.).

The in basket: PEMCO regularly turns out press releases about
how drivers in Washington state view certain issues on the roads.
Most recently it has polled them on what it calls “the ever
loathed left-lane camper.”

“Though this culprit is a common source of commuter
frustration,” the company said in a news release, “the latest poll
from PEMCO Insurance shows that while drivers regularly witness
this lane-hogging behavior, it may be declining.

“In Washington, where it is illegal to camp in the left lane,
the poll finds that fewer drivers witness left-lane camping today
compared to 2011,” it said. Forty-nine percent said they
often witnessed left-lane camping in 2011, while 35 percent say the
same today.

“While offenses may be declining, the poll reveals that there is
room for education, with 47 percent of Washington drivers unaware
of the left lane camping law,” the company said.

It continues with a peculiarity involving our neighbors to the
south. “In Oregon, lawmakers have proposed legislation that would
make left-lane camping illegal in that state, but the bill has yet
to be approved. Surprisingly, 52 percent of Oregon drivers believe
such a law already exists.”

It does exist in Washington, and affects not just left-lane
campers driving below the speed limit. If they’re entrenched in the
left lane and impeding traffic behind them, regardless of their
speed, the law says they must move over: ‘Keep right except to
pass,’” notes the news release.

The out basket: Long before 2011, I opined that it’s not all
that difficult to get around a left-lane camper by passing
them in the right lane, which is legal despite some ambiguity in
the laws on the subject.

And a little mind trick can help you keep your temper. Say
you’re unable to get around a left-lane camper for five minutes,
much longer than normally the case. You haven’t been delayed five
minutes, but only the amount of time it would have taken you to
travel the extra distance you could have had you been able to go
the speed you wanted. That’s usually just seconds.

Though the PEMCO release suggests that ignorance of the
keep-right-except-to-pass law is the basic reason for the behavior,
I think it’s fear of what may be in the blind spot just to the
right and behind the driver, or fear of taking one’s eyes off the
road to check, especially when visibility is poor.

The in basket: David McGarvey of Poulsbo writes, “I’m a little
new to the area and don’t understand something: Why are tolls
collected on some state highways (such as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
and the 520 bridge) but not on other sections of state
highways? Thanks for enlightening me.”

The out basket: I don’t know where David has been living
that a mix of tolled and non-tolled highways would seem unusual.
I’ve driven in several cities around the nation that have toll
booths on turnpikes and freeways with non-tolled roads nearby. And
the two examples he chooses are bridges, which are among the most
common facilities to have tolls and have been for decades.

Before Oregon couldn’t get Washington state to go along in
replacing the I-5 crossing of the Columbia River, it was to be
replaced by a toll bridge. There was talk eight years ago about
using tolls for the improvements being done to I-90 around
Snoqualmie Pass, says Claudia Bingham Baker of the state Department
of Transportation, but to her knowledge, “no one has discussed the
issue since,” she said.

I would understand better if David had asked why tolling is
becoming more common on regular highways.

For most of our history, tolls were necessary to get the tolled
facility built. That certainly was true of the new Tacoma Narrows
Bridge, and Bremerton’s Warren Avenue Bridge originally had
tolls.

More recently, tolls have been imposed as a congestion-relief
strategy, allowing single-occupant vehicles to use the
HOV lanes on some highways, for a fee, notably highways 167 and 405
in King County.

Tolls also are viewed as a way to offset diminished gas tax
funding, which has fallen prey to reduced gasoline consumption by
smaller cars and the ebb and flow in how much people drive.
Electoral and legislative decisions have also eroded tax sources
for building highways.

Where you see tolls, it will be on a recently built or revised
bridge or highway. My guess is they’ll be much more common in
coming years. They have the benefit of exempting people who don’t
use the facility from having to pay for it

The in basket: Tom, who didn’t want his full name used, e-mailed
to say, “Last week the county patched areas of Silverdale Way, both
sides, north of the 303 overpass to Schold Road. These patched
areas are already breaking down, making the road worst than what it
was. You can tell the areas by the amount of asphalt stacking up in
the center lane and by the fog lines.

“Was this a bad batch of asphalt? Does the county plan on
further repairs/ replacement of these areas?”

The out basket: Doug Bear, spokesman for Kitsap County Public
Works, replied succinctly, “It was a bad mix of asphalt from the
vendor. We will be going back to take out the asphalt we put in and
re-patch it with a better mix from a different vendor.”

The in basket: Mathew Niblack e-mailed to say, “ This
morning, between the hours of 10 and 11 a.m., I was walking
down Mile Hill Drive in Port Orchard, from McDonalds to
California Avenue and I saw at least 20-25 people driving and
texting/talking on their cell phones.

“Is anything being done to stop this? I was walking against
the traffic and several times there were vehicles driving
towards me crossing the fog line. Is someone going to have
to hurt/killed before anything is done? There does not seem
to be any enforcement

of the law.”

The out basket: Matthew had sent his observation and question to
the county sheriff’s office in late January, so they had a
ready-made response for use in the Road Warrior column when he
repeated them in his e-mail to me.

They said he was “absolutely correct,” and said any driver seen
by an officer texting or holding a cell phone to his ear while
driving can be cited under state law with a fine of $136.

“The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office is acutely aware of these
situations as you described… they occur all day, every day,
throughout the county on both city and county roadways and
state highways,” their reply to Mathew read

‘For every stretch of roadway such as Mile Hill Drive, there are
several dozens of similar roadways with the same violations taking
place. Deputies on patrol observe these actions
frequently. When we do, we try to take proactive action
when possible.

“Is there a problem? Yes.

“There are tens of hundreds more drivers who are conducting
themselves like this than there are available law enforcement
officers to enforce motor vehicle code statutes.

“Do we conduct proactive patrols to specifically target
distracted drivers? Yes, but not on a frequent basis, as
our personnel manning situation is not optimum.

“The generally accepted ‘rule’ within law enforcement is
for an agency to have two officers in its department for every
1,000 persons in the population.

“For the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office that would equate to
having 340-plus deputies on the department’s roster with a
population of more than 170,600 in the unincorporated areas of
Kitsap County.

“We can only ‘dream’ of having these many deputies for patrol
and investigations assignments, which would include traffic safety
enforcement.

“The sheriff’s office currently has 113 total commissioned
personnel (which includes the sheriff himself). Currently our
ratio of deputies to population stands at .66 of one officer per
1,000 persons in the population. You can readily see the

challenge!

“You asked, “Is someone going to have to be hurt / killed before
anything is done? There does not seem to be any
enforcement of the law.”

“(In) 2015, sheriff’s deputies wrote 137 traffic infractions for
distracted driving (cell phone use/texting). That’s not a lot
given the number of violations that take place every day. We
could do better, but our deputies typically are handling
9-1-1 response calls and are engaged in responding from one
call to the next without a whole lot of opportunity to hunt for
distracted drivers.

“What are we doing about this?

“Now that the county is somewhat ‘officially’ clear of the
recession, we have been authorized by the county
commissioners to begin recruiting (again) to fill the
vacancies.

“Prior to the recession the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office
manning was at 128 commissioned personnel. We’re slowly
working at reducing the personnel shortfall, but we can’t do
it all in one year, or even in two or three years. It’s
a gradual process.

It takes time and lots of funding to recruit, hire, train
and employ an entry-level sheriff’s deputy. Transfer
officers from other agencies don’t cost quite as much as
they’ve already graduated from the six-month basic law
enforcement training academy, but

there is still a cost in funding and time.

“And… distracted driving is only one of a significant number of
traffic safety issues that we are tasked to enforce. Our
most frequent complaint: neighborhood speeding.

“The most serious need for traffic safety emphasis:
impaired driving enforcement. Why? Statistically, more serious
injury and fatality collisions occur as a result of impaired
driving than for any other driver action.”

Mathew thanked the office for the response and said, “I hope
distracted drivers will be caught on Mile Hill soon.”

The in basket: Patty Kemp writes, “My driveway accesses directly
onto Miller Bay Road (in North Kitsap). For the past several
days, there has been road construction at the top of my driveway,
often blocking my access.

“Shouldn’t I have received some kind of notification this would
be happening, and some indication of when it will end?”

The out basket: Doug Bear, spokesman for Kitsap County Public
Works, says, “We don’t generally notify each residence personally
when we do road work. For a project like this, which runs along the
length of Miller Bay Road and moves in stages, the logistics of
personally notifying each resident presents many challenges.

“Work like this is weather dependent and we have to be very
flexible with when we can accomplish it. If we told everyone that
we were going to be there Tuesday and Wednesday, but due to weather
or equipment or crew availability we had to move it to Thursday and
Friday, the residents would be misinformed and frustrated by those
changes. Road work is always flexible, and even the best laid plan
can go south quickly.

“That said, we encourage people to sign up for automatic
notifications through The Road Report. We send out a weekly update
to subscribers each week to let them know where we plan to be
working the following week. When schedules change, we send out
notifications for those changes. This allows us to notify the most
people as quickly as possible when changes to the plan are
necessary. To subscribe go to http://www.kitsapgov.com/pw/roadwork.htm
and click on the link to subscribe. The Road Report is the best way
to stay ahead of construction detours and delays.”

The Road Report entry for this project says the paving will
extend from the Heritage Park to Indianola Road NE) this week. A
pilot car will guide motorists through the work area. Expect
significant delays of 10 minutes or more in the immediate vicinity
of the work. It doesn’t say when the overall project will be
completed.

The in basket: In my occasional trips out to Grey Chevrolet in
Port Orchard I couldn’t help but notice and wonder about two
immense storm water ponds across Hovde Road from the dealership.
Next to them was a large graded and hydroseeded area.

One of the service reps said the scuttlebutt was that it was
preparations for a Holiday Inn Express, but I couldn’t confirm
that. So I asked the city of Port Orchard, which I figured must
have approved what has been done so far.

The out basket: Public Works Director Mark Dorsey replied, “The
storm water detention facility that you are referring to is a
private system constructed by the property owner for development.
There have been numerous proposals, as it appears that the
initial plan submitted to the city was not for a project ready to
move forward, rather marketing the site. The city has recently met
with another potential buyer….looking at the property.”

The in basket: Peter Wimmer asks, “What is the legality of
continued parking on a county road? Along Dickey Road in
Silverdale, there are three vehicles that park just far enough off
of the road, a couple of feet, from the pavement everyday for over
a month. They are not abandoned, I see them warming up as I go to
work in the morning, and are not normally there during the day.
They seem to belong to the residents on Discovery Ridge Court. It
looks to be an unsafe parking area and I wasn’t too worried until
there was a large black trailer parked over night further down the
road closer to the road and unable to see it in the dark.
“I do not know if it was with the three others, but it lends to
telling people it is OK to park along the roads, not a habit I want
people to get in to.
“Also, the shoulder area by the three vehicles is now getting
rutted up from the rain and parking of vans and a truck. Is there
anything to be done?
The out basket: Doug Bear of Kitsap County Public Works, replies,
“As long as the vehicles are off the travel way and not abandoned
it would not constitute a parking violation. As for the darkness of
the trailer, it is required to have red reflectivity (as all street
legal vehicles are) to the rear.”

The in basket: After a recent Road Warrior column discussed the
scant use of the weigh stations on Highway 16, the highway to and
from Tacoma, Bert Gegner suggested that they be turned
into rest areas, which seems to be their main function these days.
But there are no restrooms or other amenities.

I asked the state how it decides where rest areas are
created.

The out basket: Claudia Bingham-Baker of the Olympic Region of
state highways, says, “We choose rest area locations based on
federal guidelines that recommend siting rest areas approximately
every 60 miles if no other traveler services are available.
Traveler services include local services such as restaurants, gas
stations, etc. that allow travelers the opportunity to stop and
rest.

“Along SR 16 there are many traveler services available, so it
is unlikely WSDOT would site a rest area along that highway.

“Many of our rest areas used to be in more rural areas but over
the years development has caught up to them.

The in basket: A Feb. 2 story in this newspaper about hopes that
the pedestrian and bicycle pathway on the Warren Avenue Bridge in
Bremerton could be widened mentioned in passing that a repaving of
the bridge in 2017 would be a good time to accomplish that if
engineers can find a way to do it and a funding source can be
identified by then.
I wondered if the bridge’s days as a patch-work quilt are about to
end.
The driving surface has been a jumble of patches since an
experimental product was used in the 1980s to repave it. I have
been told by state bridge engineers that the surface, for all its
unsightliness, has accomplished its main goal of protecting the
steel structure beneath. And I can’t say the the ride is a rough as
it looks like it would be.
An earlier news story said the work would be part of the repaving
of much of Highway 303, known variously as Waaga Way and Wheaton
Way, which includes the bridge. I asked what kind of surface would
replace the current one.
The out basket: None, as it turns out. Initial plans to resurface
the bridge as part of the work have changed, Neil Campbell of the
state Department of Transportation told a Bremerton audience
Thursday night. Instead, continued repairs and patching of its
driving surface will be done while traffic control for the paving
on either end of it is in place, said Claudia Bingham-Baker of the
Olympic Region of state highways.
“In the 2017 construction season,” she said, “we plan to pave SR
303 between NE William E. Sutton Road and SR 304 (Burwell Street)
in Bremerton.
“The current plan is to exclude the Warren Avenue bridge deck from
that paving project. That is not unusual, as bridge decks are
usually excluded from paving projects because their surfaces are
paved with different materials, and require different equipment and
different expertise than roadway paving.
“The ‘experimental product’ used on the deck in the 1980s was a
polyester concrete mix. At the time, it was a relatively new
product but has been used many times since. It does require the
correct application conditions and techniques to be effective, and
on the Warren Avenue Bridge the concrete did not set up as we would
have hoped. The result has been patches to the bridge deck
ever since.
“During the 2017 paver, we will take advantage of the traffic
control to do more deck patching and surface repairs.
“In the meantime, the city is contemplating changing pedestrian
access across the bridge deck. Although we own the bridge, the city
has operational control of the bridge, and we are waiting to see
what changes they choose to pursue, what funding sources can be
secured, and if those plans would require any changes to our paving
project.”